Review copy was received from NetGalley, Publisher. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Forged by Benedict Jacka Narrator: Gildart Jackson
Series: Alex Verus #11
Published by Ace on November 24, 2020
Genres: Urban Fantasy
Pages: 300
Length: 10 hours, 16 minutes
Format: Audiobook, eARC
Source: NetGalley, Publisher
Goodreads
Amazon, Libro.fm, Barnes & Noble, Apple
To protect his friends, Mage Alex Verus has had to change--and embrace his dark side. But the life mage Anne has changed too, and made a bond with a dangerous power. She's going after everyone she's got a grudge against--and it's a long list.
In the meantime, Alex has to deal with his arch-enemy, Levistus. The Council's death squads are hunting Alex as well as Anne, and the only way for Alex to stop them is to end his long war with Levistus and the Council, by whatever means necessary. It will take everything Alex has to stay a step ahead of the Council and stop Anne from letting the world burn.
I LOVED having the Alex Verus series as the Read-along choice for 2019. I enjoyed every book. Benedict Jacka is a clever bugger because he has me loving a spider and rooting for her! Forged is the 11th book, so there may be some spoilers here for earlier books. I would definitely recommend reading this series in order and the books are highly recommended.
At the end of each book, things only seem more dire for Alex. I don’t know how he even figures out a plan. Right now with so many people trying to kill him, he is on the run and isolated most of the time. What kind of life is that? He can’t see any friends or they will be questioned and persecuted too. It’s almost easier to list who isn’t a problem than who is a problem.
But the biggest issues are the council, Richard and Anne. All three are threats. It takes constant vigilance to stay ahead of the council who wants to execute him. Richard may want to kill him or use him, or both. With Anne, it is hard to know who is in charge, Anne, Dark Anne or the djinn? He wants to get Anne away from the djinn and make a life for them, but that may not be what Anne wants.
Alex tries to stay ahead of the council while researching to learn more about djinn and get a handle on some enemies. He comes up with some strategies for getting people to leave him alone. Alex really exhausts every option to avoid killing people. His efforts are extremely dangerous and there are many intense fast-moving scenes. And some people die.
It actually seems like Alex might be making progress. He is just about to regroup before the next problem and wham! Alex can’t ever seem to catch a break. The fateweaver is taking over more of his body and who knows what will happen then. I love this world, these characters, but most of all I love Alex. There’s only one book left in this amazing series.
Narration:
Gildart Jackson is excellent with this series. He’s become a favorite narrator for me. I appreciate his voices for all the characters. I’m collecting them on audio as I can. I loved listening and was comfortable at my normal 1.5x speed.
Listen to a clip: HERE
About Gildart Jackson
With acting credits that span stage and screen, Gildart Jackson is most often recognized for his role as Gideon on Charmed. Other notable TV roles include Jackson Palmer on Providence and Simon Prentiss on General Hospital, as well as guest appearances on Stargate: Atlantis, Las Vegas, and CSI. Theater roles include Trigorin in The Seagull, Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady, and Adrian in Private Eyes at the Old Globe.
About Benedict Jacka
Benedict Jacka became a writer almost by accident, when at nineteen he sat in his school library and started a story in the back of an exercise book. Since then he’s studied philosophy at Cambridge, lived in China, and worked as everything from civil servant to bouncer to teacher before returning to London to take up law.
| Rating Breakdown | |
|---|---|
| Plot |
|
| Writing |
|
| Characters |
|
| Dialogue |
|
| Narration (Audio) |
|
| Overall: | |
I read all types of books but my favorites are urban fantasy and romantic suspense.I like some romance and some action / adventure / mystery in everything.I like sex in my books but please, only between TWO people.Intimate conversation is equally important to the sex in a book.It lets me see the characters.The other thing I enjoy is humor.
Friend or follow me at Goodreads.
- Accidentally Amy by Lynn Painter @LAPainter @lynnpainter8.bsky.social@BerkleyRomance @berkleyromance.bsky.social - January 25, 2025
- 🎧The Rainfall Market by You Yeong-Gwang #YouYeong-Gwang #RosaEscoda @AceBooksPub @acebookspub.bsky.social @penguinaudio.bsky.social @PRHAudio #LoveAudiobooks - January 23, 2025
- 🎧 Better Than Friends by Jill Shalvis @JillShalvis @andi_arndt @WmMorrowBooks @avonbooks @HarperAudio #LOVEAUDIOBOOKS - January 21, 2025
Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
- COYER-20
Looks like you made a wise choice in selecting this series as a read along. It’s not often to see a 5-star rating for a book so far into a series. Excellent review, Anne?
Yes, this will go into my top favorites of all time series. I can’t even remember how I stumbled onto it. Since it’s an Ace series, they probably offered me a review copy of book 9 or 10 and I decided to read the first one.
This has definitely been a successful series for you Anne! One of these days I’m going to grab the first book and read it for myself?
It’s so good in every way Tammy! It has very well-developed characters, flawed characters, not all bad or all good characters, characters that grow and change, and interesting relationships and alliances. The world has a variety of complex magics. There is tons of action and some deaths.
This is one of the UF series I keep meaning to try and then I forget all about it. Love seeing the 5 star rating even after 11 books! I’m off to the library site to request a copy! 🙂
It was last year’s Read-along and it is stellar! I couldn’t recommend it more highly. The audio is also excellent.
I loved seeing everyone’s enthusiasm for this series during your readalong and great to see the series is still going strong.
It’s awesome. I have really enjoyed every book.
Okay, I definitely need to get back to this series. This book sounds fantastic! Glad you enjoyed it, Anne.
I hope you do! It’s really good. And I love the narrator too.
I’m a little behind as I did read the French books but I love this series!
I’m really enjoying it! I hope you do.
Alex really does have the worst luck sometimes. I need to read this one soon. So many things to tie up.
I’ll say – non-spoiler- that this one does really start to tie up some things but there is one more book.
My review posts next week. It was brilliant.
Yes. Exactly!